Millburn township officials reassess parking

Parking has been an ongoing issue in downtown Millburn, according to some business owners, but soon conditions may improve.

Millburn Township officials hope to present ideas addressing parking to business owners by the late summer or fall.

Changing rules about parking so employees who work in the center of town would pay a less expensive parking fee but would park farther away from the downtown area was an issue discussed during a Downtown Millburn Development Alliance meeting in April. During the meeting, Millburn Township Business Administrator Timothy Gordon said officials were looking at adding 15-minute courtesy spaces near certain businesses for individuals who want to make quick stops at a store or eatery.

Both municipal and Millburn Police officers are studying which businesses have and do not have parking permits, how many permits are located in the downtown and where they are located, and how many spaces are available on streets in the downtown for shoppers, Gordon told The Item of Millburn and Short Hills last week.

"It's a joint effort by a number of departments," Gordon said. "We hope to put together a plan by September that would show where people should park."

All business owners will be required to buy parking permits under the new plan.

"The idea is to put business spaces further away from shops," explained Gordon.

Another concern business owners expressed in the spring was about the amount of time patrons are given to park. Angela Fischer, owner of RBA Salon on Essex Street, said during the April meeting two-hour parking limits should be extended to three hours because patrons do not have an adequate amount of time to dine and shop downtown in two hours.

"People are rushing out the door. They want to be downtown but they won't be because they are worried about feeding the meters," Fischer said.

Millburn Township Committeeman Ted Bourke told The Item July 9 officials are reviewing the timing, pricing and customer rates in addition to the number and location of permit spaces.

A pricing model that would offer different rates, depending on where the permit spaces are located is under consideration. The idea is business owners and customers would pay a cheaper rate if their permits are farther away from their locations, Bourke explained.

Some examples would be offering a more inexpensive permit fee for spaces in the parking lot behind Bow-Tie Cinema than in front of Millburn Delicatessen, or having less expensive parking in the township's public works lot than in the parking deck in Municipal Lot 2.

Township officials will be doing more counts in September on the number of customers and employees that park in town, where they park, and the amount of time they stay in a space, according to Bourke. Counts are also done on commuter spaces but the number of commuter permits purchased is expected to stay constant for 2015, ranging from 100 to 150 spaces.

According to information from previous counts, it appears business owners are purchasing fewer permits than they need. Upcoming counts are expected to help township officials determine how many business permits are actually needed and where they should be put effectively to free up room for shoppers, Bourke said.

He noted it was difficult to get accurate parking counts in the spring due to traffic backup caused by the Glen Avenue Bridge construction.

"We lost customers during the construction. Customers just weren't coming downtown," Bourke said.

Last fall, the town increased parking permit fees by $200 to pay for the costs associated with constructing a deck in lot 2. Town officials soon after lowered the original increase because business owners protested the fees became too expensive too quickly.

Town officials do not have a projected rate for fees in 2015 yet, but Bourke explained the number of permits purchased, especially by business owners will have an effect on the rates.